The next COD is being developed by IW, but with all the drama they had with Activision they lost a lot of key talent. So who knows if the next game will maintain the same level of quality.

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Dismissal of senior employees

On March 1, 2010, Activision amended its report with the Securities and Exchange Commission to add notification that two senior employees of Infinity Ward were being fired due to "breaches of contract and insubordination". This coincided with Jason West (Infinity Ward president, game director, co-CCO, and CTO) and Vince Zampella (CEO and co-founder of Infinity Ward) editing their profiles on the website LinkedIn to list Infinity Ward as a former employer as of March 2010. Reportedly, a meeting between Zampella, West, and Activision staff occurred on March 1, after which neither Zampella nor West were seen; this was followed by the arrival of security guards at the studio.[27][28] It was later confirmed by Activision that West and Zampella had been dismissed, and had been replaced on an interim basis by Activision CTO Steve Pearce and head of production Steve Ackrich.[29]

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick addressed Infinity Ward studio heads on March 2, 2010 about Zampella and West's dismissal. A second meeting was held with all of Infinity Ward's employees on hand. The outcomes of those meetings are currently unknown,[30] but Activision has explained that Infinity Ward is still "central" to the future of the Call of Duty franchise. Activision has created a new studio, Sledgehammer Games, to create an "action-adventure" installment of the Call of Duty franchise. As of March 3, 2010, Activision maintains that Infinity Ward is still the central pillar of their Call of Duty franchise and this new studio is merely an extension of the franchise.[31]

Further departures

Following West and Zampella's firings, nearly half of the remaining Infinity Ward employees resigned. Throughout April and May 2010, 46 employees, among the lead designers and programmers who worked on Modern Warfare 2, abruptly left Infinity Ward. All have so far declined to comment on their reasons for leaving.